


Music Box Dancer

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Jedi Ben Solo, Pre-Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey Needs A Hug (Star Wars), Rey Palpatine, Voe Needs A Hug (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:53:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27597145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: In a galaxy where Palpatine returned much sooner and Luke is missing, Rey and Voe's paths collide.
Relationships: Rey & Voe (Star Wars)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 8
Collections: Heart Attack Exchange 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frozensea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozensea/gifts).



They were on the hunt again.

One of Tai's contacts had picked up a lead from another contact, and past that, Voe didn't know how the rumor had spread like a thin web across the galaxy from the source to them. Favors begat favors, and allies created connections, and their team stood at the far end of this line, hoping for the right piece of information to get an edge and win the war.

Team, she thought to herself, and shook her head in annoyance. She sat behind Ben, who couldn't see the motion and wouldn't care as he piloted them towards the coordinates Tai sent with his last communication. Tai and Hennix seemed to be having better luck with their mission. She'd give almost anything to be with them instead, but she and Ben were a 'team' for now, as if that word meant anything other than 'two people forced to share a ship and destination until they could rejoin the friends whose company they enjoyed more.'

Voe didn't hate Ben, she thought at the back of his shaggy black hair, as if he could hear her. She didn't even dislike him, not in any real fashion. He was just.... She bit back her internal grumble. Better at her. Than everything. And he knew it. And she knew it. And that hurt her pride every single time. A Jedi wasn't supposed to let her pride rule her, or her bitterness at her classmate's superior innate ability with the Force, but letting go of either was a lesson she had yet to master.

She turned back to the communications system and replayed Tai's message. The holographic image of her friend appeared, and in a volume set low enough only for Voe's ears, he repeated: "We may finally have a lead on Master Skywalker's whereabouts. Spectre sent us intel about a map." Tai added the coordinates and hoped the Force would be with them.

She replayed Tai's message again.

"You've played it six times," Ben said, not turning around to look at her. "I know the coordinates."

"I want to know what we're up against." She kept the growl out of her voice, but only just. Spending this much time with Ben ate at her nerves, even if it was for a good cause. This was the best cause she could think of.

Master Skywalker had vanished ten years ago, leaving his students rudderless and his family devastated. Ben was both, and had spent most of the last decade desperate to locate his uncle. His mother swore Master Skywalker still lived, and she would know. She'd taken over the last of their training, with some help from the few other Jedi she and her brother had known, but it hadn't been much. She wasn't a Jedi herself. Master Kestis and Master Bridger couldn't and wouldn't absorb the extra students under their own care, and Master Tano had simply declined. Leia had given them what she could, and the others had offered up a few final lessons, but the same day Master Skywalker disappeared, the rumor had raced across the galaxy that Emperor Palpatine had returned, somehow surviving his apparent destruction years before on the second Death Star.

Now the galaxy seethed, factions within factions, some marching under the banner of the Emperor who intended to be restored to his throne, and some in the name of the New Republic who couldn't even agree on a banner. Oh, and a handful of Jedi who may as well have still been padawans, but no one counted them, not even the newly-minted General who'd overseen what had passed for their Trials.

They took missions, of course. Ben got word from his mother, and they did what they could. Time was, Jedi were Generals themselves, wading into battle at the head of columns of identical troopers. Now they were foot solders, spies, agents provocateur, and a few other names they came up with during the rare times they gathered. If Leia was a broadsword swinging against her foes in the name of the New Republic if not under its direct domain, they were its thin-bladed daggers, to be thrust into vulnerable positions in the fledgling Empire's armor. Alora had aimed for the deepest cut, going undercover inside the Imperial machine for the past four years with no contact to anyone.

"I should go," Ben had said when they'd first discussed the mission, but his mother had overruled him. Not out of love, Voe thought, but out of fear. Something in Leia always feared the pull of the Dark Side on her family, more than anyone else Voe had ever met. Leia wanted Ben to focus on finding his uncle. If Luke was back, he could defeat Palpatine. Luke's Light must be more than strong enough to defeat the Dark, just as it had been before. Leia believed this with a fierce certainty, and she'd kept believing even as the years lengthened, and the war raged, and no news came of her brother's location.

Voe wondered about the Dark Side. Master Skywalker had warned them of its allure, and its power. Sometimes, Leia's worries made Voe speculate they might not like what they found at the other end of their search for him.

But first, this map.

She left her seat and came forward, bending beside Ben to view the destination coordinates. "Jakku?"

"That's what it says," he replied with a testy annoyance. The only thing that made dealing with Ben tolerable was the knowledge her presence irritated him as much as his did her.

"What could possibly be on Jakku? It's a wasteland."

"A map to Luke Skywalker, for one thing. Also hundreds of wrecks from the battle." She watched him make a face. "I hope it's not buried inside one of them. It will take us decades to locate."

She said, "It won't be buried inside one of them. That battle happened almost thirty years ago."

Neither of them spoke their real hope. Maybe Luke had gone there. Maybe they'd approach some far-flung village on the edge of existence, forgotten even by the themselves-forgotten dregs who lived on Jakku, and as they set foot there, a tent door would be flung open, and Master Skywalker would be waiting, proud of them for finding him. The search for him had been their real trial all along, he'd tell them, and embrace them, and call them both true Jedi Knights.

Which was a stupid fantasy, and she saw the same recognition cross Ben's awkward features. Master Skywalker wasn't waiting for them, wherever he was. He was injured, or lost, or dead, no matter what hope his sister held out.

But they would keep looking, until the very last thread of hope snapped, and Voe herself would keep looking, even if meant having to put up with Ben.

* * *

Jakku was a blistering, scouring wasteland, full of dead hulks and wasted people, and Rey hated it with all her soul. She'd been sent here on yet another mission she didn't understand and wouldn't be given all the details she needed for, and as always, she'd been told failure was not an option.

Grandfather had said there was a map here to something he desired. "You are my best agent," he'd told her, placing a withered hand on her shoulder, bare as always in the strapless gowns she wore when she stood in his presence. She dared not shiver or shudder away. Bad girls who didn't smile, who didn't kiss their grandfather's cheek when ordered, who didn't obey his commands to retrieve valuable assets or dispose of them, or who used their powers out of turn, well, those girls were punished. She didn't like to think about the punishments, even as the memory of purple lightning flickered across her vision in this hellish sunscape.

Girls who were good were rewarded, and Rey strove to be good. She obeyed every command, and she knelt in her place as Grandfather walked by her, and she called him Master even as the word burned like Jakku sand in her mouth, all for his obscenely gentle nod, and permission to live another day. He even gave her gifts, like the shimmering crystals at her ears, or the heavy golden necklace inscribed with their family symbols that he'd placed around her small neck when she first came to live with him, or the ancient dagger in its sheath at her hip. He encouraged her to wear his tokens at all times, even as she slept.

"They are reminders that you belong to me, child. Even in your dreams, you must remember that."

"Yes, Grandfather."

The hot sun must be baking her brain, because she thought she saw figures in the distance, shimmering in the heat, and they wore her parents' faces. Her parents had loved her. Rey could close her eyes and feel the smooth press of her mother's hand cradling her cheek, or the rumble of her father's voice as he rocked her in his arms singing a lullaby. They had loved her, protected her, but Grandfather had found their hiding place, and now he was her protector and they were mirages.

The shadows dissipated in the heat shimmer, if they'd ever been there in the first place.

She hated this planet. She would get this map he wanted, and she would go.

As she often did, in the terrible, secret cupboard inside her mind where even Grandfather couldn't reach, she pulled out the word 'go' from her last thought, and she examined it, fondling the lines and shape of the word, the concept, the hope. She could go. She could take her ship and flee. Grandfather's grasp didn't extend as far as it once had, not with the execrable New Republic in his way. His new Empire spanned only a third of the galaxy. She could pick any of a million worlds and live out her life away from him. The thought excited her, and kept her alive in the dark nights when she was certain her soul would collapse from despair. She could run.

But hope never stayed long. He would find her. No matter where she ran, or how well she hid, her grandfather would seek her out. His power was far greater than hers. And he would punish her, might even punish her for thinking about running.

Rey buried the word 'go' deep inside her psyche, locked away with so many other wishes and could-never-bes. There she kept faces, dreams, people she'd met and people she had yet to meet but knew were out there, waiting. Since she'd been a young girl, she'd been cursed with the gift of precognition, seeing cracks into the future without knowing what the wisps of visions meant, if this unknown visage would be a friend, or someone she would cut down in the pursuit of her ordered goal. She locked away her dreams with those visions, things that good girls could never want.

She found the village after several hours of searching on foot, right as night blessedly fell and lowered the temperature of this oven from baking to cool. If she stayed long, it would drop to freezing, giving her new problems. Rey didn't intend to stay.

Her goal could be achieved in multiple ways. She could go through the tents that made up this nomad village one by one. She could retrieve the blaster she'd brought and set fire to them all, driving the villagers out and allowing her to pick the person she wanted easily from the fleeing crowd. She could grab someone from the first tent and hold her blade to their throat and demand her prize be delivered to her. Grandfather would be pleased with these choices. He encouraged Rey to give in to her impulses, to embrace destruction and anger.

"You could become my apprentice," he cooed at her, placing his decrepit hand on her head as she bowed. "Even your paltry powers could be useful if you opened your heart to the Dark Side."

"Yes, Grandfather," she always replied, closing her eyes. But her powers were so weak, and she was unworthy.

Weak they might be, but her powers were useful for something. She reached out now, feeling with the Force. The map was here. All she had to do was use the Force to determine which tent held her prize. These others were meaningless. She didn't need to waste her time killing them to achieve her goal, even as her grandfather's imagined presence scolded her for leaving witnesses. Destroy them, he chided her. Embrace your power.

She'd been sent for a map, not a massacre.

It was in the far tent, midway between two others. Rey ignored the villagers, talking to each other and pointing at her as she crossed the camp, past their limited animal enclosures and their cook fires.

She flung the tent flap open. "Give me the map," she demanded, knowing there was no point in bartering or pretending she'd come for anything else.

Instantly, two lightsabers were thrust at her face.

* * *

The old man was kind and courtly, and on very good terms with Ben, whom he embraced as a dear friend the moment the two of them set foot inside his tent. Voe stifled her annoyance, then was flustered as Lor San Tekka bowed low to her as if she was important, some dignitary on the same level of importance as the (abdicated) Prince of Alderaan at her side.

Tekka insisted they sit with him and take a small meal together before they spoke of business. Voe was sure they shouldn't linger but Ben flung himself to the floor, waiting for Tekka to brew his strong tea and warm three tiny seedcakes over the fire outside. He brought the food inside and portioned it out between them with as much grave dignity if they had been ambassadors from one of the Core worlds. Voe was in turns uncomfortable and flattered, and very confused.

As he stepped outside again, Ben looked at her with an irritated sigh. "I told you, he's Church of the Force."

"I don't care if he's Tyrian Way."

"Tyrian Way don't believe Jedi are demigods. The Church of the Force teaches that people like us are the Force made manifest. It's a great honor for him to have us in his home."

Voe fixed him with a stare. "You're not serious."

"Traveling with him was very strange. He and Master Skywalker were friends, but there were a few mornings I woke up early, and caught him praying to my uncle while Luke was still asleep."

Tekka returned, his beatific smile still on his face, and Voe tried to imagine this. She'd always liked Master Skywalker. He'd been a gentle teacher, full of encouraging words for his students, quick to praise and slow to punish. Everyone knew Ben had been his prize student, not just the strongest with the Force but also his sister's child and a boy he couldn't have loved more had Ben been his own son, and yet he'd made plenty of room in his heart for his other students, caring for them and nurturing them. She could easily see Tekka or anyone falling in thrall to such a kind soul. That would make sense. But worshiping him? Worshiping _them_? That was too much for her to consider.

She set down the wooden plate he'd given her, covered with seeds fallen from her dainty cake. "We appreciate your hospitality, but time presses us. We need that map."

Tekka gave her an appraising look. "Impatience is a difficult trait for a Jedi to live with. Luke had too much impatience himself, and learning to release it was one of his hardest lessons, one he was still learning the last time we spoke."

She felt her face warm. Who was this man to upbraid her? "If you say so."

"I do. I knew him well, and I can see you would have been one of his favorite pupils. You remind me of Luke a great deal."

Again, she didn't know where to place the compliment. There was noise from outside the tent, and her senses tingled. Ben sat up from where he lounged, his expression gone dark and hunted. "Someone's here."

Tekka looked at the tent flap. "Impatience has never been one of my flaws. Lingering over old times is my deepest shame." He removed a pouch from his cloak and pressed it into Voe's hand. "The map is here. May it lead the two of you to the place where you need to be."

She placed it into a pocket of her own robe. "Thank you."

The tent flap burst open. "Give me the map."

Voe's lightsaber sparked to life, shimmering emerald, just as Ben's blue blade ignited. They took point against the intruder.

"Come no further," Voe said.

A red blade lit to match theirs. "I won't ask twice."

They had what they needed. They had to get the map out of here. But Voe and Ben both knew what a red blade signified. Their enemy was trouble, and they didn't dare leave this poor village to her wrath.

Voe pushed her way out of the tent, forcing her enemy back. Ben was at her side in an instant.

Out here in the low light, Voe could make out vague features: human, very thin, dark pockets under her eyes but not the yellow madness of a creature fallen into full darkness. She wore a simple black tunic under a dun cloak, and Voe saw the sparkle of jewelry. Ben would know better the value of her trappings, be they pretty baubles or fine gems, and this might be information they could use later to identify her corpse.

Voe engaged, sizing her up with a basic first-level attack to draw out her opponent's abilities. The newcomer parried her easily, which was expected. Ben lunged from the side, and she spun to deflect him without an issue. She'd trained well in the use of her lightsaber. Master Skywalker had taught his students how to defend themselves from multiple attackers, and from multiple styles of combat, and clearly, so had this woman's teacher.

As they fought, Voe tried to tamp down the fearful word bobbing in the calm lake her mind ought to be. The Empire had once been led by a Sith and his apprentice, or so Master Skywalker had taught them, and the pair had a cadre of Inquisitors at their call: Dark Side Force sensitives, not following the Sith path, not strong enough to lead, but bent on the same deadly goals. This girl's presence, and she was not much more than a girl, Voe noted as they spun together with clashing blades, said the returned Emperor was training new students of his own. New Sith.

They didn't dare leave her alive.

Voe would give Ben this: he was an excellent swordsman. Unfortunately, so was their adversary. Master Skywalker had told them that fighting against multiple enemies was a skill they must learn, but they had all additionally picked up from the practice that being on the side with multiple fighters didn't necessarily mean you were in a better place. Duelists working together needed to stay aware at all times of the movements and plans of their partners, lest a friend's blade be the one that amputated your leg. An outmatched opponent could attack all her targets with impunity, and this one did, slashing with great skill.

They were winning, but it wasn't as overpowering a victory yet as Voe wanted.

She pressed her attacks, paying attention to the sweep of the girl's arm, and the drop of her elbow. The lessons were old inside her head, and all her skills against another lightsaber had been honed against her teachers and classmates, never an opponent bent on her death. Her lightsaber had defended her against blasters, and cut swathes through marching white-armored armies, but she'd never engaged against a crimson blade, and she had to remember everything Master Skywalker had told them, everything she had learned sparring.

Their adversary pressed her own attack. Voe felt the fear in her, not of them, but of failure at her own mission. She needed this map, and if she failed to retrieve it, something worse awaited her than the possibility of her own death at the end of a blue or green blade.

Voe shook her head. A Jedi needed empathy yes, but not in the middle of a battle.

Her momentary distraction, and Voe swore it was only a moment, was enough. The girl flung out with her powers, grabbing Voe and tossing her into the air, far across the village, singeing her as she passed a cook fire.

The embarrassment at being caught was almost worse. She flipped at the end, coming down on her feet rather than her back or her head, and dashed back towards the fray. Now Ben and the other were locked in solo combat, an entirely different style of fighting, and one he was very good at. They countered close now, blades flying faster than the eye could watch, red and blue flashing green and white as they touched and sprung apart, sparking together, shining a cool purple light over their faces. In the dark desert evening, with the fires around them, the light of their blades was the brightest sign for miles around.

They came close again, and in the brightness of the swordlight, their faces were clear.

The girl hesitated, and Ben didn't take her hesitation to end her, only paused for a long moment himself.

A shot rang out, a blaster, and the girl crumpled to the ground, her blade extinguishing as the hilt hit the sand.

Voe realized she'd just been standing there, watching. Tekka lowered his blaster. It had been set on stun, her brain filled in. He'd left their enemy alive.

"My apologies," he said to Ben. "I would not dream of interfering in your work any other time."

"It's fine," Ben said, closing his blade and snapping it to his belt, barely paying attention. He stared down at the girl.

"What is it?" Voe asked, coming closer.

"I don't know," he said, shaking his head in confusion. "I saw her, and she saw me." He shook his head harder. "I don't know," he repeated.

"You know we have to kill her."

"No," he said, and there was no argument to be made with his tone. "She's our prisoner now. We can't hurt her. That's what they do."

Voe knew this. That was part of the deal. If you wanted to call yourselves the good guys, you didn't execute your prisoners, or torture them. That was what the Empire did. But she didn't like it. "She's a Sith. I don't know if we can keep her prisoner." She gazed around the village hopelessly. These were nomads, taking their herds to graze on the impossibly sparse vegetation spread out through Jakku's wastes. They had no means of keeping her, and she must be kept.

With a sigh, she looked back at Tekka. Had he set his blaster to kill instead, they wouldn't have this problem, but he'd made the choice. "All right. Let's load her into the ship."

* * *

Rey woke to pain and light. Her hands were bound behind her, making her shoulders ache, but not bound tightly enough to cut into her skin. She was restrained, not harmed. She recognized the headache as the lingering aftereffect of a stun blast, her first obtained on a mission. Grandfather had insisted her training include being shot this way, to learn how to revive herself quickly in the aftermath. She'd failed him in this as well.

She looked around herself, gathering her bearings. Even before she'd come to full consciousness, she'd known she was aboard a ship. The jerk into hyperspace had roused her. The deck beneath her was hard and cold, and she was in a tiny storage room, dusty with the remains of whatever equipment had been hurriedly removed to make space for her. The glowlamp above made a thin, bitter light that stabbed her eyes, and the walls held nothing of value. The door would be locked, but that was nothing. She had been trained to open locks when she was five.

Her Force senses had always been dull, but she felt the presence of the two Jedi nearby.

She lay there for a moment, thinking. Her powers had never been strong, a mere echo of the grandeur Grandfather wielded, and barely up to par with his other young Inquisitors. She was his heir, although they both understood that term was laughable, for Sheev Palpatine intended never to die, never to need leave his Empire to her. But heir she was, and his powers she ought to share, and for one moment back in that village, she'd tapped into them, the deep well inside herself she'd always hoped existed, thrusting one of her enemies far from her.

The Force had flowed through her, and it had felt so good. But she hadn't pulled it from hatred, nor from anger, or even from her terror that she would fail. Something else had allowed her to use the Force with greater strength than ever before.

She rose to a sitting position, moving her arms and shoulders. No longer resting on them, she ached less. A true Sith would take the pain and use it to reinforce her powers. Rey just wanted a painkiller.

She considered her situation. She was alive, therefore her captors did not immediately intend to execute her. She had been raised with stories about the New Republic's weakness, how they coddled their prisoners instead of pulling the necessary information from them by any means. These were Jedi. They would not harm her. These two facts put her at a great advantage. She would harm them and take the map back, for surely they carried the map with them. That could be the only reason they had come to the same place as she at the same time.

Rey didn't let herself wonder what the map led to. Had she been intended to know that information, she would have been briefed. Therefore it wasn't important.

But the Jedi clearly thought it was.

Their minds were bright, close by, not readable but distinct. Neither was given to the Dark Side but interestingly, she felt traces of darkness smeared along both souls, like an unsavory sheen over a puddle. Could she use this, convert them both to her cause? Grandfather would surely praise her then instead of punish her for her failure. She would have no failure. Turned to the Dark Side, they would bring the map to him together.

She let herself enjoy this fantasy for a few minutes, alone in her makeshift cell. It wasn't possible. She would have to kill them and seize her prize.

After some time, the door opened. Outside, the woman stood with her lightsaber lit. The man came into the storage closet unarmed, holding a cup and a small tray. "Good morning. I assume you're hungry. If you try anything, Voe will be happy to stab you, so don't bother." He crouched next to her.

Voe. The woman was named Voe. Grandfather had told her that forming a personal connection to others was the key to controlling them. Once, he'd been the Chancellor, climbing into the position by a long game of pretending to care about others and their interests. Rey had taken the lesson, and had tried not to wonder too loudly where he might hear her thoughts if his interest in his own granddaughter might be as feigned, if she was only important to him as a tool. She wasn't sure her heart could survive his honest answer.

The Jedi could be her tools. "I'm Rey," she said, voice cracking from the dry desert and dry air here aboard their ship.

"Hello, Rey," said the man, giving her a crooked smile. Something about his face was familiar in ways she didn't like. She had never seen these long features, pocked with dark spots, not once during her waking hours, yet part of her knew him, had known him as soon as she'd seen him in the light of their locked blades. She sensed his aura in the Force here with her now, sensed it as a familiar mirror to her own, not like Grandfather, not like anyone else she'd ever met.

It occurred to her that personal connections as a means of control could run both ways. She couldn't afford to wonder about why she felt this stranger was a long-parted friend.

"You will untie my hands and free me," she said, pushing him with her mind.

"And you will learn not to bother trying a mind trick on someone already trained in the use of the Force. Let's start with some water." He lifted the cup to her, letting Rey bend forward as he tilted it at a low angle. She should have refused it, and instead she drank gratefully, gulping the cool water down. Her canteen had run dry before she'd reached the village. Under any other circumstances, she'd have flown in but she'd wanted the element of surprise. She'd been the one surprised. No wonder Grandfather had no interest in training her further, between her paltry powers and her limited ability to accomplish even this task.

The man pulled the cup away. Rey didn't bother to thank him. "Who are you?" she asked, keeping the question neutral instead of a demand.

"Call me Ben." Now both strangers had names.

Ben had cut up the food into small bites, too small to identify their original shapes. "Do you have any food allergies? I'd rather not kill you from anaphalaxis."

"No, torture is much more fun." She watched the blow land on both faces.

"You're the ones with the torture droids," Voe said. "Although that doesn't sound like a bad idea right now."

"Maybe later," Ben said, and brought a piece of food to Rey's mouth, feeding her like a small child. She ought to bite him. Instead she reluctantly took the food into her mouth. Jogan fruit burst onto her tongue, sweet and tart. She hadn't eaten any in years and the shock of the fresh taste startled her. Prisoners should be served crumbs, or worse. At best they were given rations like all soldiers, enough to keep their bodies alive. The next bite wasn't so sweet: a protein strip chopped into squares, but a good quality one, dosed with smoky flavor.

Ben watched her as she ate. "You haven't had a good meal in a while."

"Soft food makes for a soft body." But she took the next bite from him, and the next, keeping her enjoyment wiped from her face.

When she finished, he gave her another drink. "Don't drink too much. Voe isn't interested in escorting you to the 'fresher. You'll have to wait until we arrive."

"What's our heading?"

"None of your concern," said Voe from the doorway. "Suffice it to say, we'll hand you over to someone who can keep you locked up better than we can."

"I won't tell you anything," said Rey.

Ben stood, flowing to his feet with an easy grace despite the long, lanky reach of his tall frame. "We didn't ask you anything."

And as they locked the door again, leaving her there, she realized they were right. They weren't interested in any intel she had because they didn't know she had any worth asking about. She wasn't a valuable prisoner to them. Grandfather had kept her existence a secret, even from his other servants. Rey was known to be one of his favorites, and one of his pupils, but the reason why stayed within a tiny circle of knowledge. She'd even heard the rumor that she was his concubine, a shuddering horror of a thought that thankfully was nowhere near his plans for her, whatever those were.

She had to get that map. Everything would be better once she brought the map to her grandfather.

* * *

"This is a mistake," Voe said, once they were safely back in the cockpit and away from where Rey could hear them. "We can't just bring her to the base and give her the location."

Ever since the Imperials had regrouped their loyalists and started retaking territory, the New Republic had fought back. The NR Navy fought under the official flag and sanction of the Senate, but many other smaller groups worked their own operations. Ben's mother led a fleet of her own that was loyal to the New Republic but didn't answer to them, and she wasn't the only one. These cells operated out of hidden bases, thus the more ready to strike at the encroaching Empire as they waged their attacks. It was to one of these bases that they now headed, their prisoner in tow.

Ben dropped into the pilot's chair. "When you have a better suggestion, share it."

And that was the problem. She didn't. They wouldn't execute the prisoner in cold blood, and they couldn't free her. General Organa's team had interrogators who could ask her useful questions about troop strengths and locations. Voe and Ben weren't involved in that part of the war effort, and Leia had been very clear that she didn't want either of them ever trying to extract information from someone else's mind on her behalf.

"That's Dark Side magic," she'd told them. "We can't afford it."

"Even if it could win the war?" Ben had demanded then, stuck in one of his surly moods.

Voe remembered the look on Leia's face, and even now she still didn't understand the emotions she read there as Leia said, "If we used those methods, we would already have lost the part that matters."

Voe didn't think so then, and she struggled to believe it now. Fine. Mind-ripping was Dark Side, no question. But they'd all used the mind trick to make their lives simpler on missions, and doing a delving read on someone to prevent catastrophe should override any queasy implications. But that was a line a Jedi couldn't cross, and she accepted it even if the terms grated on her.

She pulled the pouch from her pocket and pulled out the map. "We should take a look at this."

Ben nodded, and Voe plugged it into the console. A star chart appeared, surrounding them. She scanned the systems for anything familiar, but the stars weren't labeled. One glowed in the center of the map. It could be where Luke had gone, although she still had no idea why he'd left, or if he'd left under his own volition.

"Tekka didn't tell you where he got the map while I wasn't paying attention, did he?"

"Wouldn't that have been helpful? No, if he'd thought it was useful, he would have said."

"We could contact him again and ask."

Ben closed the map. "If you think he will tell us something else, by all means." His tone said he didn't, and she didn't open the comms to bother. Tekka had thought the map itself was information enough.

Voe sat back in her own chair, disgruntled and unhappy. This should be good news. They should be close to finding their lost master. Instead, she worried. Rey had known about the map, and had come for it. That meant whoever had sent her, and the red lightsaber she carried gave a strong hint as to who that was, would also be looking for it. They'd checked her for trackers before bringing her aboard, and had removed and discarded Rey's earring transmitters out the airlock as they'd left atmosphere. What if they'd missed something? Nothing else she carried transmitted any kind of signal they could find, and she had nothing implanted.

So why was Voe so worried?

She moved out of her chair and towards the aft of the ship. "Where are you going?" Ben asked.

"I want to talk to the prisoner."

"About what?"

She fixed him with a stare. "Blasters, pod-racing. You know, girl stuff."

"I know that look on your face."

"I'm just going to talk to her for a while." She left her lightsaber with him and returned to the storage compartment they'd turned into a cell.

Rey looked up at her as she stepped inside. "I thought it might be you," she said in a tired voice. "Ben didn't seem the interrogator type."

"Shows what you know. That man is one bad mood away from a black cape and red stick of his own." She was mostly kidding. Whatever Leia's worries, Ben would never go dark. Voe was almost certain. "Is that what happened to you? Ran away from home because Mum and Dad wouldn't buy you a fathier for your birthday and you joined up with the bad guys to rebel?"

Rey said nothing, fixing her gaze on the empty wall.

"I'm probably the worst interrogator in the galaxy for telling you this, but we're not going to hurt you. That's not what we do."

"That's why you're going to lose. The Emperor says you have no stomach for what it takes to rule the galaxy. That's the reason he's made such progress since his return."

Voe shrugged. "One of my teachers said that if we used your methods, we'd already be lost."

"He sounds weak."

"She's one of the strongest people I've ever met." She tilted her head over her shoulder. "That's her kid out there. Now he's a pain in the backside, but he's stronger in the Force than you and I put together." She hated saying it out loud, especially to this possible Sith in her hold. The implied threat worked, though. She saw it on Rey's face.

"We can sense how powerful you are," Voe said. "You've got nothing we can't beat. So much for the power of the Dark Side."

"The Dark Side is powerful. I've seen it. The Emperor can wield massive power. When he moves against you himself, your little Republic will topple. You haven't seen a gram of his power yet."

Voe made a noise. "It's been ten years. You'd think he'd have done something by now."

"He has patience."

"I don't. Why did you go to Jakku?"

"The same as you. I want that map."

"So you can find Luke Skywalker before we do?"

Rey's face changed. "What?"

A cold drop fell in her stomach. "You didn't know what the map was for."

"It wasn't in my mission. I didn't need to know. You might be lying to me now."

"I might," Voe said, trying to recover while cursing herself. Rey hadn't known, and she'd been the one to tell her. Now they could never let her escape.

"You're not." Rey looked at her. "Your mind sparks with so many thoughts, so many things you desire, who you want to be, and who you can't. But you don't lie."

"Get out of my head."

Rey kept staring. "Your parents took you to the temple. Your powers overwhelmed them. You were too much for them to handle, and they'd heard of Skywalker's school. They left you with him. You haven't seen them since. I wonder why you're bothering to look for Skywalker. He abandoned you, too."

"I told you to get out!" Voe shoved her, and stormed out, the sudden wave of her old anger threatening her equilibrium. She understood her parents' reasoning. She had accepted her path a long time ago. Nothing this Sith could say to her changed the person she'd become, the person she'd had to be after the ship blasted away, leaving her alone among these strangers.

It could have been worse. She knew enough about the galaxy to know they could have abandoned her, or sold her into a terrible life. People did, as horrible as that sounded. Instead she had been cared for by a master who was gentle with all his students, and she'd been raised among friends with the same special gifts and needs she had. But Luke had taken Ben to see his parents regularly, and Tai and Hennix and so many of her friends returned to their home worlds a few times per year. They had been loved. When she'd been younger, she thought if she practiced more, showed them all she was the very best, maybe her parents would want her to come home. After Luke's disappearance, she'd almost gone. Half of her classmates had returned to their homes rather than limp along with the limited training they could. She hadn't dared. The Jedi Order, as small as it was, was all she had left of a family now.

As she returned to the cockpit, her most obnoxious brother said, "We're approaching the base. Did you kill the prisoner?"

"Shut up, Solo."


	2. Chapter 2

The man, Ben, came to her cell to get her shortly after the ship landed. Rey could feel the buzz of hundreds of minds around her outside the ship. Their base, or someone's base. He helped her to her feet. "We can cover your eyes while you walk, or you can promise to behave."

His hand on her arm was firm, and sent shudders through her skin. Voe had said he was powerful, and Rey could tell. He was like Grandfather, imposing in the Force even with her eyes closed, but where her grandfather's presence oiled and snaked around everything it came in contact with, Ben's Force signature shone like a bright star. She could still feel the dim hints of darkness, just as she had in Voe, but they were nothing.

"Come on," he said, leading her out. Voe fell into step on her other side, weapon at the ready.

She looked around the ship as they passed through. Small, not any kind of luxury liner but adequate for two to four itinerant Jedi making their way through the galaxy together. Her eyes touched on the console, and she remembered the feel of their minds. Voe had viewed the map before coming to see Rey, she was sure, but Rey hadn't found any useful information there.

They would have used the ship's console. The data would still be in its memory banks.

If she couldn't get the map itself, she could take the ship. She readied herself for any opportunity. None came as they disembarked. Members of their foolish little Resistance cell stared as Rey was escorted by the two Jedi. They brought her to a conference room, and they waited.

A short, middle-aged woman came into the room, a calculating expression on her face and a radiant aura surrounding her. Rey felt a surge of emotions pass between her and Ben. Voe had said his mother had been one of her teachers. The woman said, "Welcome back. You were sent to collect a map, not a prisoner." From Grandfather, the words would have been a sharp rebuke, accompanied by the threat of pain. Ben's mother was amused. She flicked her eyes to the disassembled pieces of Rey's lightsaber that Voe placed on the conference table, then to Rey's face.

"Haven't seen one of those in a while." She approached Rey. "You're not a Sith. Inquisitor?"

Rey held her tongue, even as she felt the woman's overpowering presence in the Force. Like Ben, this woman had more power in her than anyone Rey had encountered save her grandfather, and like the two Jedi with her, that power was filled with light.

"Things would go a lot easier on all of us if you'd tell us who you are and what you want with that map."

"Her name's Rey," said Ben. He glanced at Voe. "She hasn't said why she was there."

Ben's mother twitched, and came closer. If Rey steeled up her powers, she could try what she did before and throw this fragile-looking woman across the room. She'd be killed for it, but that was a better prospect than sitting in a cell for the rest of her days.

"Rey?" Her voice was a combination of amusement and wonder. "Palpatine sent his own granddaughter to get the map? He really must want it."

She felt Ben's hand shake, and heard Voe's gasp. "I don't know what you mean," said Rey.

"We've all got our spies, kid. I don't know much about you, but I know enough. No one has seen you in years." She paused. "No one has seen you and lived to tell the tale, I should say. Who knows how many kills you've made." She looked at her son and his friend. "She's one of his enforcers. I've never gotten a firm story on the things she's done." As though her mouth were full of insects, she spat, "Like Vader was."

Rey met her eyes, and said nothing. There was little to tell. Grandfather didn't trust her with many missions. She was too weak, too useless, he said. This woman believed Rey must be a master assassin, yet she'd killed fewer than half a dozen people in her life, and most of them had been shooting at her at the time.

"So Palpatine wants to know where my brother is," she said, and now Rey knew her, knew what stories fell into place around this woman and her family. "That suggests either he has him, and doesn't want us to know, or he doesn't, and intends to get to Luke first." She stared at Rey. "Any hints, Princess?"

"It's your map. You figure it out, Princess," she said, biting off the words. Ben squeezed her arm.

Leia Organa, for she could be no one else, sighed deeply. "We're not the enemy, you know. We're the ones trying to keep the galaxy free from your Granddad. He was the one who wrecked it before."

"He is the rightful ruler and his Empire will reign supreme once more."

Leia gave her a look of disappointment Rey found all too familiar, and said, "We've made a cell for her. Make sure she gets into it. She can spend the rest of this war staring at the force field. We've got more important things to worry about."

* * *

Voe waited until Rey was locked away, and the cloud over her own vision had cleared. She returned to the conference room with Ben uninvited, and saw the looks he and his mother gave her for doing so, and she didn't care. They could have family time later.

"Palpatine had kids? Palpatine had grandkids?!" She gestured away, vaguely towards the location of the cell. She tried and failed to picture the grotesque former ruler of the galaxy giving puffer-back rides to little moppets. "And you knew and didn't tell us?"

Leia folded her arms. "Voe, as the leader of this particular militia, I come across a huge amount of information, some reliable, some not, and I have to parse out what's useful and who needs to use it. You weren't on the list."

"Neither was I," Ben said, his eyes dark and accusing. "You should have told me."

"It was a rumor. There was nothing to tell."

Voe said, "Your rumor is sitting in a cell now. What next? You're going to tell me Darth Vader's got some younglings of his own running around? Is that what we're up against?"

Ben and Leia stared at her. Leia rubbed her forehead with a weary sigh. "I don't have time for this. I'm glad you both found the map. Now we need to use it to locate Luke and bring him home. Han's already loading the data into the _Falcon_ 's nav computer. Ben, I'd like you to join him. Voe, you're welcome to do the same."

She didn't want to drop it. This was huge. If Palpatine had one child, he may have had dozens, and the same with his black-helmeted lapdog. How many Sith were out there? Little Palpatines and little Vaders running around with red lightsabers, bent on the destruction of the last handful of Jedi? It was a horrible thought.

But Master Skywalker could fight them. He could lead their side to triumph. "I'll go."

"You should be the one," Ben said to his mother. "If he's run off, you're the person he'll listen to."

"He didn't run off. I'm sure of it. I want to go, but I'm needed here. You and your father can bring him back." Mindless of Voe standing there, Leia tiptoed up to bring Ben into a hug. Voe looked away and down, and tried not to think about the feeling of her own mother's arms around her, or how long ago that had been.

The _Millennium Falcon_ would need another hour to get ready for the trip. Before their arrival, Captain Solo and his furry first mate had been in the process of pulling her apart again for more of the eternal fixes required to keep her running. Voe privately wished they were taking a different ship, one more likely to survive a trip through hyperspace without falling to pieces, but she had no say.

She made her way back towards the cells. The Resistance wasn't set up for long term incarceration any more than the _Grimtaash_ was, but it did afford a small brig area set aside for militia members who didn't play nicely with the others. Rey sat alone in her cell, and watched Voe approach.

"You're really his grandkid?"

Rey gave her a glare without much heart in it. "Everyone is someone's grandchild."

"That's why you support him. You didn't sign up out of idealism to the Empire, you got added on in the family package."

Rey said, "No different from your friend."

"You never said what happened to your parents." Another glare. "You know about mine, whether I wanted you to or not. Are yours out there Sithing it up for ol' Pappy?"

"They died. Grandfather took me in after that. I was five."

Voe knew better than this. She shouldn't get into deep conversations with someone who'd tried to behead her. She had her own problems, and she didn't need to add on by risking her mind to the lies and subterfuges of an enemy. But the girl seemed so young, and for being the heiress to the Emperor, she seemed far too ill-used and harried. Voe had felt her fear of him. A Jedi's job was to help relieve suffering, no matter where she found it.

"What happened to them?"

"None of your business."

"No one else is going to listen to you here, you know. They're going to keep you locked up, and when this is all over after we win, you'll get a trial, and no one will care." All right, some Jedi were probably better at the comforting part of relieving suffering. Voe understood she might have more personal growth to work on.

"I don't remember what happened." Now that was a lie, and Voe could see it in bright yellow shades in Rey's mind, scribbled over a truth she didn't want to look at.

"I think you do." There was a chair close by, hard but sturdy. Voe pulled it closer and sat. "I'm going to take a wild stab and assume your granddad was involved."

"He took me in," said Rey in a lower voice, not denying the accusation. "Even though my powers aren't as strong as his. He said he would keep me safe, as long as I was good."

"And if you were bad?"

Her eyes flashed, and a storm crashed inside her thoughts. It wasn't an answer, but it was enough of one. Palpatine had taken a child, his own blood, and twisted her into his tool, almost certainly murdering her parents. And still, despite this, Voe sensed little darkness within her. Rey might be working for the wrong side, but she was no more evil than Ben was. In another life, if her parents had brought her to the temple like Voe's had, she could have walked a far different path, and become Voe's little sister instead of her attempted killer.

The Force moved the galaxy in mysterious ways, Master Skywalker had always taught them. It wasn't for any one Jedi to know the ultimate design, but it was on all of them to allow the Force to work through them to make that design come forth.

"Mental exercise time," Voe said. "Our teachers had us do these frequently."

"Now you're teaching me?" Rey asked with disbelief.

"Let's say I'm will to consider the notion you might be worthy of being taught." Another glare, harder this time. Voe wondered if she'd pushed too far. It was a weakness, one she was still working on. "Imagine if you will that I set you free right now."

"I'd kill you."

"You might try, but I think I could best you in a fight. Let's say for this argument that you don't kill anyone, and get away cleanly. Where would you go?"

"I'm not giving away my grandfather's location."

"You'd go home to your grandfather. All right. What would he do when you arrived empty-handed?"

Rey's face told her everything she needed to know.

"We have the map, you don't. You failed your mission. You've been a bad girl."

"Stop it," Rey said.

"Your words," said Voe. "You'd go home and he would punish you. So why go home?"

"The Emperor is all-powerful. He knows where I am now. He'll come for me here and destroy you."

"We removed your trackers. He can't follow you, Rey. You could run."

"I can't run." Her voice went bleak. Either she'd tried, or she'd been so beaten down by her life that she believed escape was futile, impossible.

"You could stay. Not as a prisoner, but as an ally. The Resistance could protect you, and you could help us." It was a wild offer, and one Leia would never go for. Rey was too dangerous a prisoner, too unpredictable a player. But Ben loved to brag about things he knew from the old Rebellion, and he had shared plenty of stories about Imperials who had turned heel and joined up. His parents numbered many friends who'd once fought for the Empire.

Rey gave a short laugh. "I'm your enemy. You can't protect me. You can't even hold me for long. I'll find a way to escape, and I will return to my grandfather and tell him where your silly little base is. That's my purpose."

Voe shook her head. "It doesn't have to be your purpose. One of the things we learned at school was that destiny moves us all, but the important thing about destiny is that you're the one who chooses it. You may be Palpatine's grandchild but that doesn't mean you have to be his minion. You could fight him instead. You know that's the right thing to do."

"He will win, Voe. He is stronger than you, stronger than me."

"Not stronger than all of us, especially not when we have Master Skywalker back. You think you're weak, but you're not. Just because he's got more innate power than you doesn't mean you're not stronger than he is. You haven't learned where your strength is yet." A warm shiver went through her, all the way down to her toes. Sometimes your own problems were easier to solve when you were solving the same ones for someone else. She cleared her throat, cleared her mind. "You can choose your own destiny, Rey. You deserve better than this." The _Falcon_ would be ready soon, and she had to go. She stood. "Think about it."

"There's nothing to consider."

Voe turned away, resigned. Behind her, Rey said, "I hope you find Skywalker."

"So you can have us all in one place to destroy?"

"I was thinking it would make you happy. You miss him."

Voe said nothing, leaving her there alone.

* * *

Rey waited until Voe was gone, then lay down on the hard mat that served as a bed. She was imprisoned, and the trackers she hadn't even known had been on her had been removed. He was never coming for her, and that thought gave her a strange feeling of freedom rather than despair. Voe hadn't been able to read her mind, but she'd guessed enough. Rey remembered the love her parents had give her, and the shapes of their faces, and the sounds of their screams as they'd perished. Force Lightning was unforgiving of both failure and treason.

She fingered the necklace her grandfather had given her that same day. "This is the truth of your family, my child," he'd said, even as her parents' bodies had been cooling on the floor. "This is who you are. Never remove it. Never forget." She hadn't, not once, not in years. His first gift to her had pressed a groove in her skin where it lay flat against her collarbone, the secret sigils engraved over it as reminders of her true name, where all could see and none could translate unless they spoke the tongue of the Sith. He'd marked her, and kept her, and trained her, and terrified her, and she wore his tokens to show his possession.

She had so little power. He should have killed her that day, too. It was an impossible kindness on his part that he'd allowed her to survive, and kindness was not one of his traits.

Kindness seemed to be in abundance here. Ben had been kind to her, and his mother had shown her a gentle mercy that could not possibly be expected in reverse. Even Voe, whom Rey had assumed would be the one to kill her at the first opportunity, had melted into kindness, offering Rey her freedom, and hope, and a place among them as a friend.

This was unthinkable. Rey belonged to her grandfather, belonged to the Empire, belonged to the Dark Side. She wore his token.

Looking out from her cell, she realized that she'd spent the last day interacting with people who didn't belong to anyone and who were very happy about that. The militia here was dedicated to keeping people of the New Republic from belonging to the Empire. Grandfather had taught her Imperial rule was freedom, but these people weren't frightened. They didn't wear the scared faces she saw in the ranks of the Imperials she knew. They were free.

Her thoughts were unforgivable. Her grandfather would discover her treasonous ideas and he would punish her.

_"You deserve better than this."_

Angered tears slid down her face. With a vicious pull, she yanked the necklace away, scraping her own skin as she did, and threw it to the ground.

The world....changed. Rey had always been aware of the thoughts of others, could read into them when someone stood close enough to her. In an instant, she was overwhelmed by the sheer pressure of minds surrounding her, of every species from humans and Duros and Wookiees and Twi'leks and Aqualish to the single-thought buzzing minds of the tiny insects hovering around the base, and the base desires of the animals in the undergrowth, all of them big and small: food, heat, mating, yearning.

Rey gasped with pain at the onslaught, wrapping her hands around her head until she grew used to the sounds and they abated into a less painful background pressure.

The Force was everywhere. She sensed it between herself and the bunk and the walls and the people outside and the creatures beyond, even sensed it between this world and all the stars around them. It was as though she'd spent her life swaddled in soft blankets and was suddenly, piercingly aware of light, and color and sound.

Her eyes fell to the ground where the necklace lay. She reached for it, and as her fingers brushed the cold metal, she felt the Force ebb away again into the barely-felt presence she'd associated with it since....

Since she'd been five.

Across the stars, she felt her grandfather's presence stir, and his consternation. The flick of his anger threatened her, and she nearly quailed beneath the familiar terror, but he could not hurt her here. _"What have you done?"_ he demanded inside her mind.

Rey didn't reply.

So many other minds clamored for her attention. The ship carrying Voe and Ben had just left atmosphere, and she sensed them as though they stood next to her cell. Free of the mist that had covered her, she saw them both clearly in the Force now. Voe was a brilliant diamond, sharp edges and too many facets to count. Ben was something else again, and Rey knew she needed to speak with him, now that she could see him. The strange feeling they'd shared when they'd met had to mean something. He was important, somehow.

Much closer, she felt the curiosity springing from Organa's mind as she sensed Rey's new, strong presence.

She wouldn't have much time.

Her lightsaber was gone, but she didn't need it. She could build another. She reached out with her powers to the control cell for the force field, and squeezed. The panel shorted and sparked and died.

Rey smiled grimly, grabbed her necklace and shoved it deep into a pocket where it didn't affect her, then ran. Anyone who got into her way was swept aside with her powers, like dusting a moth off her shoulder.

The ship she'd arrived in was still docked in the same place. They'd taken another to go find Luke Skywalker. She sprinted aboard, yanking up the loading dock as fast as she could, even as alarms blared around her. Rey slid into the pilot's chair, taking in the controls in an instant. She had spent her life believing she couldn't use the Force better than some child, but she had always been a fantastic pilot.

She launched, forgoing any of the pre-flight checks that caution called for and time didn't allow, and blasted away into the sky. Pursuit would follow. She squeezed the yoke until her hands ached, dodging blasts from the ships dispatched to stop her. The comms squealed with chatter, demands for her surrender, threats, and more. She turned it off. The moment she broke atmosphere, she hit the hyperdrive switches and prayed to the Force that she wouldn't fly to pieces or smack herself into the side of an asteroid.

She wondered what Organa would make of the sudden change in Rey's power levels sitting in her alone cell. She'd seemed dangerously intelligent. She would send a warning to her own family with her suspicions.

Rey opened the ship's logs and dug into the memory until she pulled up the last item read. A star chart surrounded her, the hologram filling the cockpit with pricks of light. Her grandfather's technicians could take the stars and within minutes, fit them to known charts. Ben and Voe would have done the same on the new ship they'd taken.

Rey flipped through charts one by one. It would take her hours, but she'd find the place where these stars fit, and she would set her course. She might arrive after the others, though she was sure it wouldn't be by much. She would follow them, and she would find Luke Skywalker herself, perhaps even find him at the same time Voe and Ben did. Ben could hug his uncle and finally have his family back together. Voe could have her teacher returned to her, and she could regain a piece of her poor, abused heart.

Rey herself had many questions for this mysterious legend.


	3. Chapter 3

Master Skywalker was gone. Voe pretended the moisture streaming from her eyes had to do with the ash and soot clouding the air and not her overwhelming disappointment. They'd spent ten years searching for him, and by the crackle of the coals, they'd arrived less than an hour too late. 

Ben and his father searched through the ruins of the structures. Chewbacca had taken his own corner to search. It didn't matter. Voe had been aware of Luke's presence inside of her mind from the day she'd met him so long ago. Whenever he was close by, she'd known it by the warm light that had filled her. She felt nothing of that presence now, and any remaining hopes she had were dashed by Ben's slow shake of head. If he couldn't pick up his uncle's mental signature, there was nothing left to find.

The map had brought them here as soon as they'd narrowed down the nearby star systems. There were too few habitable locations on this world for him to be stranded anywhere else, even if they hadn't orbited twice to use Ben as a magnet. They'd landed here, and found what appeared to be the smoldering remains of a detention facility. The guards were dead. Luke was nowhere to be seen.

Ben's father had said, in a strained, sad voice, "The powerful ones vanish into the Force at the end. There'd be nothing left." He'd cleared his throat under the same excuse Voe had made.

Chewbacca had said they should search to see what they could find, and now they were searching. Ben and his father wanted answers. Chewbacca wanted evidence. Voe wanted a stiff drink and a quiet room where she could go cry by herself without anyone seeing. The sorrow and recent pain still echoing here buffeted her, and she placed high mental walls up to block them out as she pretended to search for the nothing she expected to find. She helped Chewbacca with the distasteful task of gathering up the bodies for the pyre they would light before they left.

The destruction was recent. The corpses were fresh. And all Voe could think was that if she and Ben had taken that damn map and used it to get here first instead of dealing with Rey, they might have arrived in time to help.

"I found something," Ben said, calling them over. He and Han dug out a huge metal container. "That's Mandalorian script at the top. I can't read it."

"Don't look at me," said Han, and Voe shook her head.

Chewbacca came closer. His Mandalorian was very rusty, but he thought it said "Containment Unit 3."

"It's a Force prison," said a voice, and Voe spun, lighting her saber instantly.

Rey hung back, her hands empty at her sides as Ben's lightsaber lit and his dad drew his blaster on her.

"You!" Voe advanced, feeling the dangerous anger boiling in her gut and not caring. "You did this!"

"I just got here." She looked around. "This isn't your mess?"

Han said, "Does it look like our mess?" Chewbacca growled that they had in fact made messes like this before, and Han gave him a quick look of embarrassed acknowledgment before turning his attention back to Rey. "It's not our mess."

"It's not mine, either. Where's Luke Skywalker?"

Unfortunately, Voe believed her. She didn't want to, wanted someone or something to fight, a target where she could release her sorrow and disappointment. Which meant this was a bad time to hold her lightsaber. Master Skywalker wasn't here, but she could feel him watching her. She doused her blade and clipped it to her belt. "He's gone. How do you know what a Force prison is?"

Rey stepped closer, and moved past them to the container. "My grandfather scavenged these from Mandalore after he conquered it. There were never many of them." She scratched at her throat absently. "They're relics from an ancient era. They could have held him in one of these, and you'd never have known he was there."

Voe approached her. Rey's signature in the Force was far more intense than it had been, but Voe had been forced to work with Ben since she'd been a girl and she tuned the other woman out as she crouched down by the container. Not that she could read Mandalorian. She pressed her hand down against the metal, and felt a deep chill, and something more. "Ben," she said, hating herself a little. "I need you to examine this."

He bent beside her, and put his hand next to hers. His face changed. "Psychic impression." He looked over at his father. "He was here."

Han wasn't happy with the news. "Yeah, and he's not here now." His eyes fell on the empty container.

Voe didn't know what to look for when someone vanished into the Force. Master Skywalker hadn't gone into that with them. She did remember the story he'd told about Master Yoda's death. "There's nothing in here. No robes. No lightsaber. Something should have been left behind."

Ben stared at it, then closed his eyes. "I can't sense him anywhere nearby. We should contact Mom and see what she thinks."

"Right," said Han. He gestured with his blaster. "You two watch her."

Voe glanced over at Rey. She was a threat, a terrible one. She knew to come here, and worse, she knew where the base was. Leia would have considered the same thing and even now would be contemplating a quick change in scenery. "Did you tell him anything?"

Rey stared back under the sunken darkness of her eyes. "No."

"We can't trust your word on that."

"I'm aware."

Ben moved closer to Voe. "There's another way."

She looked at him, then at Rey. She knew exactly what he was suggesting. Leia had told them over and over it was a bad idea, but Leia wasn't here. It wasn't exactly Dark Side, she thought to herself. Not if we're the good guys. She could already see Master Skywalker's firm frown under his beard. "It's not a good plan."

"But we'd know," said Ben. "What else are we going to do with her? We can't let her go, and we can't keep her prisoner."

Voe gave him a look, but he'd already said once they weren't killing her, and she doubted Han would disagree unless they knew for sure Rey had a hand in Master Skywalker's fate. She looked at Rey again. "Why did you come here?"

She didn't move, but somehow she made as if to huddle inside her own robe. "I wanted to."

"Why?"

"I wanted to meet Luke Skywalker for myself." She rubbed at her neck again. "You were right."

"I do love hearing those words," Voe said, glancing at Ben. "What was I right about?"

"Grandfather is afraid of me. He dampened my powers."

Ben said, "How?"

"It doesn't matter. He was keeping me powerless so I wouldn't usurp his place." A deep sorrow surrounded her. "I wouldn't. I love him. I..." She took a deep breath. "I think I love him. You're supposed to love your family and he's all I've got left. I don't want to take his place."

"She's telling the truth," said Voe.

"We can make sure of that," said Ben.

Han and Chewbacca returned. "Leia suggested we shoot her, but I think she was kidding. She also says she's sure Luke's still alive." His face was calmer now. Voe knew Ben's family had all been friends for a long, long time. His dad missed Master Skywalker as much as any of them.

Ben said, "I could read Rey's mind to see if she's telling the truth." Voe almost objected, but Ben's powers were stronger. He could get into someone else's head much more easily than she could.

Had they asked Ben's mother, she would unequivocally say no. Ben's father thought about the proposal. "You're sure you can do that?"

"Yes. It's easier if she agrees," he added, looking to Rey. But not necessary, he didn't say. That was why Leia worried. Maybe the act wasn't Dark Side, but it could be.

"Fine," said Han. "Read her mind, figure out if she knows where Luke's gone."

Rey took a step back. "I don't like this."

Voe said, "You read my thoughts. Now it's your turn. This can be easy, or it can be hard." She grasped the hilt of her lightsaber.

Rey made a face, setting her chin. Then she gave Ben a curt nod.

* * *

Terror shook her bones, but Rey held still as Ben approached. She felt the power inside herself. She could fight him and run. She knew she could. But she'd come here for a reason, even if she wasn't clear in her own mind what all those reasons were. She hadn't run home with the precious information. She hadn't contacted her grandfather to tell him the location of the Resistance base. She'd come here alone and unarmed.

Ben held out his hand. Rey felt the shivery, invasive touch of someone else sliding inside her mind. Grandfather did this sometimes, when he wanted to make sure she was being good.

 _"I'm sorry,"_ came the thought. _"I won't go where you don't want me to."_ The touch inside her head gentled. She opened her recent thoughts to him, showing him the conversation with Voe, and what had happened when she'd discarded her necklace. She let him see the tumult in her mind over what to do next, where to go, and what she hadn't done.

 _"I am not your enemy,"_ she told him, and she felt his mother's comment to her echo in the words.

The door opened both ways. She saw his confusion, and his worry, tied up with the long tail of his own history, which she saw only glimpses of. Names to live up to. Ghosts that hung over him day and night. And the uncle who'd been his connection and his anchor to his own overwhelming powers, lost for years, leaving him flailing and pretending to know what he was doing because admitting he didn't was out of the question.

 _"I understand,"_ she said.

Ben stepped away, and his presence withdrew. "She's telling the truth."

"Thought she was," said Voe. "So why is she here?"

"The same as you," said Rey. "I want to find Luke Skywalker."

"For your granddaddy?"

Ben said, "No. Not for him. She doesn't want to go back to the Empire as far as I can tell."

"Fine," said Ben's father. "Kid, start piling corpses. If Luke's not here, we've got to keep looking, but we're dealing with the bodies first. Ben, help me figure out where he went. There were some ships still docked."

The pair headed off towards the landing area. Rey looked around. There were bodies, more than she'd ever seen in one place. Voe and Chewbacca were already stacking them like bricks in a sad pile to one side. Rey had never done anything like this before.

Voe noticed her confusion. "Lift. Carry. Drop. It's easier if you pretend it's firewood."

"You've done this before?" asked Rey as she bent to lift a fallen man under his shoulders.

"We've had to clean up after the Empire 'cleansed' a world." Her voice was tight. "It wasn't very clean."

Rey realized she had a second option. She reached out with her powers and used them to help lift the dead man. She carried him to the pile. He was as light as straw. Voe saw what she was doing, gave her a simple, curt nod, and continued with her own work beside the Wookiee.

Rey tried to parse this scene with what she knew of Luke Skywalker. There wasn't much to go on. Had he been kept prisoner here? The likelihood appeared high. But who had kept him, and why? Had he murdered his captors on the way out the door? That didn't match up to the image in Ben's mind, or the scrap of image she'd seen in Voe's.

"I'm sorry I read your mind earlier," Rey said, carrying another body.

"Are you?"

Rey went to say she was, then understood it wasn't true. "Not really, no. I should be sorry."

"Yes, you should. Ben saw into your mind but didn't say. How many people have you killed?"

She knew her mind was closed now. "Some." And because she could, she asked, "How many have you killed?"

Voe looked at her thoughtfully. "Some," she said after a moment. "We were trying to protect people."

"I thought that's what I was doing."

"No, you didn't. You thought you were protecting your own life. If you failed, Palpatine would have had you killed. He wouldn't even have bothered to do it himself." She placed her poor, dead load on the pile.

Rey stood silent. Voe couldn't have read that from her, but it was true. She hadn't cared about the missions she'd been sent on, few as they were. She'd only cared about her own survival, and survival had meant success. She'd failed this mission. Perhaps that was why she'd stayed.

Ben and his father returned. "Some good news," said Ben's father. "There was a ship that lifted off a couple of hours ago according to the automatic logs. Luke might be on it."

"There was a course heading," Ben said. "Only a direction, though. No destination logged."

The Wookiee gestured at the last few bodies remaining. They piled them with the rest. Ben's dad said, "You want to say any words?" But there was nothing to say. They didn't know these people, and had no idea what gods they were committing their souls to. They set the pile ablaze and walked away.

"You've got my ship," Ben said, irritated.

"It was handy."

"It's mine."

"And it's back to you," said Voe. "General Solo, we'll take the _Grimtaash_." She left Ben and Rey staring at each other and boarded the ship. Rey broke first and followed, feeling Ben's petulant annoyance behind her.

"You moved everything," said Ben, adjusting the pilot's chair to accommodate his lanky frame. "Strap in for launch." They lifted off. Rey could see the flames off to the port side. Then Ben swung the ship around and they were gone. They met the other ship in orbit around the planet.

Over the comm, Ben's father said, "I've got the heading. There are three known systems directly in line with it, according to the _Falcon's_ nav computer. One of them is an old Rebellion base." The coordinates arrived on Ben's screen.

"We'll rendezvous with you there."

As soon as the line closed, Rey said, "He's not going there."

Ben was already plugging in the coordinates to his nav computer. "You don't know that."

"She's right," said Voe. "The first thing Master Skywalker would do would be to contact his family or return to the Temple site, or both. If he's the one piloting the ship, he wouldn't stop at some old Rebel base."

"He might need fuel," said Ben. "Or his comms might be down."

"Or he's not the one flying," said Voe.

Ben's eyes flashed with anger, and Rey could feel the fear worming inside him, the same fear that had cut a path deep into his soul from the day his uncle had disappeared. "We have to start somewhere. He's alive, Voe. We have to find him."

"I know!" Her own ire was piqued now. "But all our wild mynock chases haven't tracked him down either!"

Rey looked between them, feeling the old tensions bubbling. Even the slim glances she'd read in both minds said every argument was an old argument, every slight piled onto a lifelong mountain. She was their sworn enemy, technically, but this pair would go at each other's throats given enough provocation, which was useful to know.

She realized she was thinking like her grandfather.

* * *

As she often did, Voe stewed in her seat while Ben flew. As soon as Rey had said Master Skywalker wasn't headed to the old base, she'd known it to be true. The old frustrations shook inside her The loss of their master merged with her own self-doubts, and tangled inside her with her long competition against someone she'd always known she could never best. She'd told Rey it didn't matter who had more power, that finding her own strengths was more important. In the moment, she'd believed that. Now Rey sat behind them, lost in her own dark thoughts, and simmering with power that Voe could tell vastly outmatched her own. She wasn't angry with Rey about it. Rey hadn't spent their entire childhood casually showing her up.

She stood. "I'll be in the back. I need some time to meditate."

"How do you do that?" Rey asked.

Voe almost snapped at her, but again, her annoyance wasn't with the girl. "Join me. I'll show you." Rey followed her into the aft compartment, and sat across from her. "You've never just sat still and communed with the Force?"

"Grandfather says the Force is something to be mastered and controlled. He wants me to be in touch with my anger. He says hate will make me strong." Her face made the lost expression again.

"The Dark Side is a cheap, quick way to power." Master Skywalker had always said so, and Voe believed him. "Anger can fuel your powers, but that's not the point of having them. A Jedi is an instrument of the Force. We don't control the Force. We allow the Force to work its will through us."

Rey made another face. Voe wondered if she was tired of being used as an instrument of someone else's will.

"Take my hands," she said. After a moment, Rey pressed their fingers together. "Close your eyes and breathe."

For a long time, they sat just that way. Voe remembered how long it had taken her to learn this simple act of patience, and her only solace had been that Ben had taken twice as long. She realized she was letting him take over her meditation. She took in a deeper breath, held it, and expelled the air from her lungs along with the thoughts of him. "The Force is inside you, and inside me. It links us, binds us, even between the stars."

The Force pulsed inside of her mind, an always-present friend and teacher. She remembered grasping it even as a small child, curious why no one else around her could move things by their wills alone. In hindsight, this must have been terrifying: a small child rooted in the primal selfishness and neediness all small children were, lashing out or grabbing everything she wanted with magic powers they could not comprehend. The Force was calm within her now, a steady guide when all other guides were lost. It had not always been so, and many days she still had difficulty finding the balance.

She felt Rey's presence and reached out with her own. This was not mind-reading, but the simple commune of spirits. Loneliness, regret, self-doubt, these reflected between them. Voe wasn't sure she liked this mirror, and even that dismay echoed.

Without words, Rey shared how she'd spent her life unable to live up to her grandfather's expectations, and discovering that was part of his design didn't give her any more confidence. Voe's own worries about living up to what others could do lay plain in her mind, as did Rey's astonishment. Voe had so much power and training. She was a Jedi. Rey was nothing.

"You're not," said Voe, drawing up and out of the meditation. "And neither am I."

The ship came out of hyperspace. Voe moved to her feet and held out a hand to Rey. They returned to the cockpit, where Ben already had the comm open with his father.

Before he said anything, Voe knew what Han would tell them. "He's not here."


	4. Chapter 4

Rey still tingled from the movement of the Force through her limbs. This was what meditation did? Amazing. She wished she'd known about this years ago. She wished she'd known many things.

"We're going to land and scout the area," said Ben's father. "If Luke did come here, maybe he left something behind." The hope in his voice was forced, even to Rey's ears. He wanted to believe.

Voe and Ben scowled at each other. Voe wasn't so gauche as to say she'd been right, but it was clear he resented her as much as if she had. Gingerly, Ben said, "If he's not here," as though there were still some chance Luke might be waiting on the planet, "we'll have to return to base. We're out of clues. That map was our only hope."

Rey came closer to the control panel. "You said you had his trajectory?"

"We thought we did. We don't even know if he was aboard the ship that left."

"Can I see it?"

Ben turned his glare to her, then jabbed his fingers at the controls to contact the _Falcon's_ AI directly. A chart of the galaxy appeared. The planet where they'd been stood as a pinpoint, while a thin red line shot away at a tangent to the Core and aimed at this system. Rey had already learned these controls when she'd stolen this ship, and easily changed the view, following the line through deep space and empty systems.

She touched a point on the starchart. "There's an Imperial base here."

"You think the Empire took him?"

"That doesn't make sense," said Voe. "The Emperor sent you to get the map."

"I know." She'd been considering this in the back of her mind, ticking over all the tests and traps Grandfather had set for her over the years. Mere dictators made plans. Grandfather made plans within plans, stacked atop one another like blocks. "General Organa said it back at your base. One reason why my grandfather might want the map is that he was holding Skywalker hostage himself and didn't want you rescuing him."

"She was only...." Ben stopped. "Fine. But if he already had Uncle Luke, why destroy his own facility?"

"That's easy," Voe said. "No witnesses." She looked at Rey. "He doesn't care about his tools when he's finished with them. He'll have the troopers he sent to fetch Master Skywalker shot the moment they arrive."

He asked Rey, "Why keep him alive at all?"

"You tell me. I wasn't taught anything about Jedi."

Voe looked out the viewscreen, dull horror moving over her features. "Master Yoda and Master Kenobi used to talk to him. Do you remember?" Ben nodded. "The powerful ones don't just pass into the Force. Their spirits remain. If he had Master Skywalker killed, he'd give him the ability to be anywhere. He could tell you and your mother anything."

"A perfect spy," said Rey, and knew she was still thinking like an Imperial. Perhaps that was best. She knew them. She could think like them. She could.... "I think I can free him." Voe and Ben looked at her with varying degrees of disbelief. "I know where the base is. I can get in there and find him. I am the Emperor's Hand. They'll never suspect me."

The disbelief lingered as did the suspicion. She didn't blame them. Were their positions reversed, she'd never trust either one declaring a sudden change of heart. Rey herself wasn't sure she'd had one.

"Tell us about the base," Voe said. "Then we'll decide what to do."

Rey dug through her memories. There wasn't much, She knew the location and the purpose, but she'd never traveled there herself. She had to guess at the troop complement, and told them so. Lying wouldn't get them to trust her. Ben's father and his Wookiee companion joined the conversation when they returned to orbit. Solo didn't like it, but his friend reminded them they'd pulled this trick before.

"Yeah, and they know we pulled it before," said Solo over the comms. "Still, we didn't have an Imperial on our side at the time."

"This would be easier in my ship," Rey said. "It's back on Jakku."

"It's scrap by now," Ben said. "The scavengers won't leave a good piece of new tech alone."

Voe said, "Simple enough. You met us on Jakku, lost your ship and commandeered the _Grimtaash_ instead."

"And took you prisoner," said Rey. "Unless you want to disembark now and let me take the ship alone."

They didn't, and they didn't want to be her prisoners, either. Ben said, "You'd have killed us."

"I'd have killed Voe," she countered. "You're a valuable prisoner. Skywalker's nephew? Organa's son? I'd be handsomely rewarded for bringing you in."

Voe said, "He's a prisoner, I'm a corpse?"

Ben said, "You'd make a great stormtrooper."

"I am not going to dress up as a kriffing stormtrooper."

* * *

The uniform itched and Voe hated it. If hate and anger were paths to the Dark Side, this white armor was well on its way of converting her to her own Sith robes. They'd landed with the help of Rey's command codes, and it hadn't been hard to get a luckless stormtrooper to board the ship to 'help' Rey with her prisoner. Now she marched Ben at blasterpoint behind Rey, who stalked through these corridors like she belonged here. Voe was worried that she did. This could be a long ruse, culminating in bringing in Ben Solo with a Force dampener around his neck and binders on his wrists. Ben had read her mind, but what if she'd hidden her plans more deeply than he could dig out with a polite search?

On the bright side, Ben had let Voe punch him in the mouth to make his capture look more realistic. That had lightened her mood tremendously. It wasn't the catharsis she'd wanted all these years, but it had felt good in the moment.

They were stopped by someone in an important-looking uniform flanked by stormtroopers of his own. Voe had never learned Imperial ranks in her schooling and didn't intent to care now. "Lady Rey, I've received word to detain you." His eyes were fixed on her neck.

Rey had mentioned this. If her grandfather's plan had been to keep her docile with the Force dampener, she either had to show up wearing it, or have a very good reason not to be. The heavy trinket rested around Ben's throat, diminishing his presence in the Force. Rey gestured at him. "You can tell the Emperor I have caught Ben Solo for him."

"You may tell him yourself, my lady." There was a hint of disdain in the man's voice, but only a hint. "The Emperor commanded that you be brought to see him."

"He's here?"

"He will be arriving within the hour. He is waiting to speak with you by hologram." He and his entourage led them through samey-looking corridors to Command. Voe tried to pay attention to every turn, and rapidly got lost.

A huge, blue hologram of the Emperor overshadowed the room. He looked even more decayed and grotesque than she recalled from the history reels, and his chuckle as his granddaughter approached filled her with a slimy disquiet. This wasn't some jolly old man pleased to see his favorite little girl. This was an animated corpse tugging on the strings of a puppet to watch her dance and cower for his amusement.

"Hello, my dear. Did you collect the map as I instructed?"

"No, my Emperor. I brought you a ship with a copy of the map in its databanks."

"Most disappointing," said Palpatine. "You were given a simple task, and you failed. I see you no longer wear my tokens as you have been ordered to. You've been bad, Rey."

Even over the hologram, even behind her mask, Voe felt the overbearing presence of the Emperor crushing down on Rey, and saw her quail.

"My Emperor, I know I failed you. But I have good reason not to be wearing your tokens." She motioned for Voe to bring Ben to the holocamera then held out his lightsaber.

"I see," said Palpatine, leaning closer. "You brought me a Jedi."

"No, Master. I brought you two."

Rey yanked off Voe's helmet, lighting Ben's saber and striking the blaster from her hands. Angry and shocked, Voe went into a defensive crouch. Rey brought the lightsaber to Ben's throat. "One move and I slay your best friend in the galaxy."

Voe stared at her in outrage. Of all the things to taunt her with, how dare she? "I knew we shouldn't have trusted you."

Ben wasn't struggling. As she noted this, she saw him make a weak motion with his hands as he looked at her with what might be begging for his life but appeared more like him trying not to roll his eyes.

Rey said, "I knew the best way to bring them both would be to convince them to walk in with me. This one," she said, poking Ben, "didn't know he wouldn't be able to use his powers. The other is of little value." She turned her chin to the officer. "Have her taken to the detention level one floor above where we keep the important prisoners and wait for me to come interrogate her. She knows some small amount of information about the Resistance and their plans." Inside her steady gaze, Voe read a child's plan made with a child's hope.

"The Resistance will find out about this."

"I've no doubt. Take her." She turned back to her grandfather with a simpering smile. "Isn't this better than a map?"

Voe didn't heard his response. She was bound and dragged through the corridors, past a maze of hallways she'd never remember. She stumbled as a stormtrooper pushed her. "Watch it," she said. "Don't you know anything about Jedi? I could boil your brain with a word."

"And I could execute you for attempting to escape," said the stormtrooper. He wore a pauldron on one arm, showing some kind of rank. His men followed behind, six of them in total. Voe considered her situation. She could easily break free of these binders and fight them. Her lightsaber might be safely stowed back on the ship, but she'd always been excellent at hand-to-hand.

The important prisoners were kept one floor below where they were taking her. Master Skywalker. And that was likely where Rey and Ben would go after Rey finished groveling to Palpatine.

She let them take her, but she wouldn't be herself if she didn't have some fun along the way. She closed her eyes as she walked and mumbled nonsense words out loud in a monotone. The stormtrooper shoved her again. "Stop that."

Voe kept up her mumbling, eyes shut and senses out. She couldn't sense Master Skywalker, and she could barely sense Ben with the power-dampener. Rey shone out, and she was moving.

"Quit it," barked the lead stormtrooper sharply.

Voe ceased her chanting and smiled angelically at him. "When the time comes, you're the first one who will die." This earned her a blaster rifle butt to the head, but she'd been expecting it and she rolled with the blow so it barely grazed her.

They marched to the detention level, the sergeant or whatever he was shouting orders to the staff already there. "Keep her here. Lady Rey will come interrogate her." Without ceremony, she was shoved into a cell.

All right. She was locked up, one floor away from where she needed to be. There didn't seem to be any convenient air vents. Rey was unlikely to come for her. She might send for her, though. Voe didn't intend to wait around to find out. She twisted her arms as she reached out with the Force and cracked her binders loose. She set them on the thin bunk rather than drop them to the floor with a loud noise.

She went to the door and examined it. The control panel was on the outside but she could unlock the sequence with her powers. She closed her eyes to concentrate, and the door slid open. The two guards that had stayed with her stood smartly outside. Another stormtrooper stood with them.

"Good," he said. "Lady Rey said she wanted to see her immediately." That made things easier.

Her binders were back on her bunk. Too late. She was directed out of the cell. One of her guards said, "She's loose!"

The other brought his blaster towards her. The third stormtrooper stunned them both then aimed at her. "You're a Jedi?" he demanded.

"What?"

"Are you a Jedi? Did you come in that ship in Hangar Bay Two?"

Voe was off-footed again. She judged her distance to the fallen guards' blasters. She could pull one into her hand before this one shot her. "Yes," she said, extending her powers to reach for the nearer rifle.

The stormtrooper lowered his blaster. "Can you take me with you?"

* * *

The detention area for high-value prisoners wasn't where she expected. Rey cursed herself. She'd been guessing. Voe could be anywhere. They'd have to track her down as soon as they finished the job here.

"Leave us," Rey commanded, but the officer in charge shook his head.

"Negative, ma'am. The Emperor gave strict orders the new prisoner should be guarded at all times."

"You dare suggest I can't deal with this mollusk by myself?"

The officer stared straight ahead. "I have my orders from the Emperor himself. Lady Rey may take them up with him."

Anger. Grandfather had told her to use her anger. Her hand clenched and she watched in satisfaction as the little tit of a man clutched at his throat, choking for air.

"I am the Emperor's Hand. Don't think you can gainsay me."

"Yes, ma'am. Sorry, ma'am." He barely croaked out the words.

She relaxed her grip and turned away, showing she was bored with him now. She'd watched Grandfather deal with his underlings enough to know they feared and worshiped power. She'd just bought the undying loyalty of this craven fool, who would gladly kiss her shoe for her protection after this. She examined the containers lined up around the room. Five Mandalorian-built Force prisons stood against the wall. The sixth had been placed inside a stasis field.

Luke Skywalker looked fast asleep. She couldn't sense him even standing next to his cell. The specialized technology masked his presence in the Force, and the stasis field kept him unconscious, dreaming through the past decade. His sister had sensed him even so, through a bond neither could break.

Rey wondered how common that kind of bond was. She thought to Ben, _Get ready._

"Put him in the next chamber," she said out loud. "No stasis field. Emperor Palpatine will wish to question him when he arrives." Which would be soon. He must have decided to come as soon as he'd given the order to bring Skywalker to this base, perhaps to gloat, perhaps to torture the poor man further.

Purple lightning flashed in her memory.

She'd heard the stories, even as sheltered as she'd been. When she'd been a tiny child, she'd been offered tales of Luke Skywalker, and as she'd grown, so had his legend. The Emperor had returned, but Luke Skywalker would rise up and defeat him. Even Voe and Ben believed that, as though they were small children, too. Rey looked at the sleeping man, saw the gaunt look and his pale skin. He hadn't moved his muscles in ten years. He couldn't lift his lightsaber to fight her grandfather. He might not be able to walk.

The stormtroopers took hold of Ben, pushing him towards another Force prison. As soon as he was next to her, she opened her palm and with her powers, she yanked off the necklace from his throat. Ben's lightsaber flew out of her hand and into his, igniting instantly. He cut himself free and cut down his captors.

Rey reached out for the blaster in the officer's hand. It smacked into her palm and she fired. Within seconds, they'd cleared the room. For a second, Rey stood there in shock. She'd already made up her mind to turn on the Empire, but until now, she could have changed her path and gone back. Grandfather might have been disappointed with her, but he'd allow her back into his presence given enough submission and obeisance. 

Ben went to the container, examined the stasis controls, then destroyed them with his lightsaber.

"I could have unlocked that," said Rey.

He handed her his laser sword. "Destroy the others." He gestured at the necklace. "And that. Unless you want to see the inside of one."

Rey turned the blaster onto the Force prisons one by one, obliterating as much of the electronics as she could. Then she sliced them through with the lightsaber, saving the last chop for her hated necklace. Ben had opened his uncle's prison, and pulled him free. Skywalker staggered out, unable to hold his own slight weight, and Ben lowered him to the floor.

The old man blinked. "Ben?"

Ben gave him a crooked smile. "Hi."

Skywalker looked around himself. "They got the jump on me." He reached for Ben's face, touching his cheek. "You're older."

"Yes, but I won't get much older if we don't get out of here." He stood, his uncle's body mostly draped over his broad shoulders.

Skywalker turned his muddled gaze to Rey. "I don't know you."

"I'm Rey. We're here to rescue you."

"Then thank you, Rey." The gratitude wasn't merely a pleasantry. Now that he was free, she felt his presence looming in the Force like Grandfather's did, but where his was dark and viscous and cold, Skywalker's aura was warmth itself.

The three of them went to the door. Skywalker was too weak to walk. Ben lifted him into his arms. "Easier this way," he said.

"I carried you around enough when you were little," said his uncle. "I don't think we'll be able to get through this way. If there are stormtroopers in here, there will be a lot more outside, am I right?"

Rey paused. They'd only had the briefest of escape plans in mind. She had a blaster and Ben's lightsaber. Ben could be no help if he was busy carrying Skywalker. "We'll have to risk it."

She opened the door. Two stormtroopers stood outside. There was a chance she could bluff past them. "You two," she said in her firmest tone. "Go to Command. Tell the officer on duty I am to be left strictly alone."

"Yeah, right," said one of the stormtroopers in Voe's voice. "One floor above you? Try three!"

Rey turned her blaster towards the other stormtrooper, who raised his arms and hissed, "Don't shoot!"

"He's with me," said Voe. "Well, with us now. He helped me find you." She looked past Rey, and her body language changed entirely. Helmet and armor or not, she was overjoyed. "You found him!"

Skywalker had his same puzzled expression. "That's not Voe? It's good to see you."

"It's wonderful to see you," she breathed.

"Yeah, nice to see everyone," said the other stormtrooper. "We need to move. This way."

Rey looked to Voe, but she seemed to trust her new friend, and how many choices did they have? She glanced back into the terrible room. These chambers had been lined up here for a reason. Grandfather intended to catch more Jedi. Maybe he'd even have stored her away in this prison for disobeying him, or for finding her own powers too great for his liking. He'd kept her weak and tried to turn her darkness while she was powerless enough to be controlled. Now she was strong, and he would be here soon.

"We should stay and fight," she said. "Grandfather will arrive within the hour. He won't be expecting us all."

"We can't fight him," said Voe. "I know what you're feeling. I'd love to give him what for, too, but our first goal has to be getting Master Skywalker out of here."

"Grandfather?" asked the stormtrooper.

"Later," Voe promised, and the two of them led the way through back corridors her friend knew all the way to the landing bay. They hid across from the _Grimtaash_.

"Ben, let me down. I think I can walk."

Ben set his uncle on his unsteady feet. Skywalker held to his arm. "We'll need a distraction," he said. He looked around the base. "I seem to recall the last time I tried this stunt, Master Kenobi challenged Darth Vader to a duel. I'd prefer not to repeat that plan."

Rey said, "I can try to get their attention."

"I have a better plan," said Ben, a plan suddenly visible in his mind. He activated his commlink. "On my signal." He watched troopers marching across the hangar. "Now!"

The base was rocked by sudden detonations. Warning sirens blared. The stormtroopers scattered. The stormtrooper with them asked, "What happened?"

Voe said, "They're under attack from a junky old Corellian freighter. Come on!"

Rey followed as they hurried to the ship, taking one side of Skywalker as Voe took the other. Ben dashed ahead of them and started the launch sequence while their new friend laid down cover fire. They made it aboard, piling into the cockpit as Ben flew them out through the hangar bay force field. He soared next to the _Millennium Falcon_ before both ships vanished into hyperspace.

Voe took off her helmet. After a moment, so did her friend. Rey had never seen him before, but who ever expected to see a stormtrooper's handsome face? He was young, almost as young as she was, and still shaking with nervousness and exhilaration at their escape.

Skywalker touched the comms. "Hi, Han."

Ben's father's smile could be heard all the way through the link as he said, "Hi yourself."

* * *

They were on a course to rendezvous with the fleet under Leia's command. She had scuttled the base shortly after Rey's escape, and was only mollified about the unnecessary loss by the return of her brother, who was getting a quick update on everything he'd missed.

Stormtroopers didn't have names, not ones who'd been abducted as children. Their new friend would need something better than a letter and number designation, but Voe was reluctant to suggest one in the fear he was already prepared to follow her around like a little fluffken imprinting on the first person he'd met. The fluffken was already arguing with Ben, which gave him several marks in Voe's good books.

Rey had gone aft. Voe joined her. "It's a bit loud up there," she said, announcing her presence so as not to startle the girl, who sat looking out a viewport.

"It is. You didn't tell me about the escape plan."

"And you didn't tell me you were going to turn me over to the Empire." She took a seat across from her.

"Last minute change in plans, sorry. I told Ben."

Voe made a face. "You two can communicate, can't you?"

"I tried thinking the same things at you, but you didn't hear me."

"No." Voe's powers weren't like Ben's, or Rey's as it turned out. She was just some ordinary woman with a couple of extra tricks. And she was going to have to learn to be happy about that because being irritated with Ben about it hadn't helped her all these years.

Voe asked her, "Are you joining up with the Resistance? You don't seem to have a career ahead of you with the new Empire."

"I'm not sure anyone will trust me. Ben can read my mind and he doesn't fully trust me. I can tell you don't, either."

"Not as such, no. But I'm willing to learn to trust you."

Rey nodded, accepting the words. "I have something to ask you. We might not be in a place where I can ask yet."

"Ask."

"These powers I have. These things I can do. I've known about them for years but this is the first time in my life I've been able to use them fully, and I don't know how. I believe my grandfather kept me from learning on purpose."

"I have no doubt he did. You've got as much power as either of those two out there. It's wild, undisciplined, and dangerous until you get it under control."

"Will you teach me?"

Voe sat back, aghast. "I'm not a teacher. My master is up in the cockpit. He's the most powerful Jedi I've ever known. And Ben," she forced herself not to frown, "he's powerful, and you two seem to have a connection." She kept the bitterness about that off her face as well. She was getting better. Letting go of her one-sided competition with him should start with small steps like these. Force knew it was past time to let go.

Of course one of the most powerful people she'd ever met had just asked Vie to be her new teacher rather than Ben. That put her ahead of him. She sighed internally. Lots and lots of small steps. She put a foot forward. "Either of them would make an excellent teacher for you."

"I understand." Rey looked down at her hands. "I expect I'll learn much from them both. But I like you better. I think I could learn more from you." She met her eyes. "If you're willing."

Voe thought of a thousand excuses. Technically, she'd never completed her own training, despite the help from Leia and the others. She was hardly someone who could take on a padawan of her own, not with her own problems getting her emotions under control. She wanted to adjust to having Luke back in her life. She was afraid she'd do it wrong somehow, and the others would look disparagingly at her for not being good enough again. Which was the real reason, and one a Jedi could not afford to hold onto like a soft toy from childhood. Voe wasn't a little girl any longer. She didn't need to prove to anyone else what she could do. No amount of study or practice or accomplishment would bring back the people who'd left her in Luke's care. All she had that was her own was this knowledge, and the price of the knowledge was the wisdom to know when it was time to pass it along.

She nodded at Rey. "All right. For your first lesson, let's try meditating again. You could use the practice."

They settled into mirrored positions opposite one another, and reached out, touching their fingers together. Voe felt the Force coursing through her, through them, filling them all on this ship and beyond. Rey closed her eyes, and she smiled.


End file.
